Target-type shooting toys have been developed previously over a substantial period of time and through the years have been steadily improved to render the same more enjoyable, especially for the amusement and skill of children. Many such devices have very elaborate, substantially horizontal, but slightly sloping, boards with many different types of obstacles thereon which cause addition or substraction from a score which is recorded, steel balls usually being employed and are projected by a spring-pressed, manually operated plunger. Another type of target-type shooting toy to which the present invention pertains, however, comprises a housing which usually has a substantially vertical target area at the rear and a suitable projecting device, commonly in the form of some type of gun, such as pistols, are movably mounted adjacent the front wall of the housing in order that the player may aim the gun toward the target and the shooting of projectiles engages movable target members which either are knocked over and are subsequently restored to upright position or various audible means are hit by the projectile, all for purposes of either providing amusement or recording competing scores when several operators are involved in the shooting operation.
Some of the devices of the foregoing type which have been developed heretofore require the spent projectiles to be loaded manually into the gun and typical examples of such devices are shown in the following patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 1,412,625: Nelson, Apr. 11, 1922 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 1,731,397: Smith, Oct. 15, 1929 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,637,213: Breslow, Jan. 25, 1972 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,109,860: Dahlstrom et al Mar. 1, 1938 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,830,569: Sakuta et al Apr. 15, 1958 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,835,495: Lohr et al May 20, 1958
Other toys of the aforementioned type which include rear targets and guns or the like at the front of the housing are provided with means for automatically returning the spent projectiles to the barrel of the gun for subsequent shooting thereof and typical examples of this type of device are found in the following U.S. patents:
Still other variations of such target and gun type shooting toys which have different arrangements from those in the patents cited above are shown in the following U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,957, to Lohr et al, dated Nov. 5, 1974, discloses a game in which magnetic balls are moved along a non-magnetic wall by a permanent magnet and said balls are struck by an impact member to cause the ball to be projected toward the target.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,970,311, to Lohr, dated July 20, 1976, shows a housing in which a rotatable target is mounted adjacent the rear wall and a pellet is held by a magnet on a wand adjacent the transparent front wall of the housing and a projecting rod in a gun hits said front wall adjacent the pellet and projects the pellet toward the target.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,113, to Glass et al, dated Feb. 25, 1975, shows a game in which a pair of combination guns and targets are mounted respectively adjacent opposite ends of a housing for a pair of contestants respectively to operate the guns, the pellets which are fired by the guns being received from a magazine respectively mounted on each gun and refilling of the magazines occurs manually.
Means for recording scores in shooting games of the type referred to above also have been devised and one typical example thereof is shown in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 2,109,860 to Dahlstrom et al, dated Mar. 1, 1938, in which a scoring wheel is actuated by rachet and escape mechanism energized by electrical means and also including a motor drive.